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WASHINGTON IRVING 



Travels in Missouri and 
the South 



Repriat From the 

MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, 
October. 1910 



NOTES BY F. A. SAMPSON 



COLUMBIA, MISSOURI, 
1910 



'-y^ 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 
TRAVELS IN MISSOURI AND THE SOUTH. 



Notes by F. A. Sampson. 



In "Astoria" Washington Irving describes the expedition 
by land from St. Louis to the Pacific Coast, undertaken by the 
American Fur Company of which John Jacob Astor was the 
leading member, which expedition was organized in St. Louis 
in 1810. Of St. Louis the author says: (1) 

''It possessed a motely population, composed of the 
Creole descendants of the original French colonists; the keen 
traders from the Atlantic States; the backwoodsmen of Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee; the Indian and half-breeds o: the 
prairies; together with a singular aquatic race, that had gro-^vn 
up from the navigation of the rivers — the 'boatmen of the Mis- 
sissippi'; who possessed habits, manners and almost a language, 
peculiarly their own, and strongly technical. They, at that 
time, were extremely numerous, and conducted the chief navi- 
gation and commerce of the Ohio and Mississippi, as the 
voyageurs did of the Canadian waters; but, like them, their 
consequence and characteristics are rapidly vanishing before 
the all-p<?rvading intrusion of steamboats. 

"The old French houses engaged in the Indian trade had 
gathered round them a train of dependents, mongrel Indians, 
and mongrel Frenchmen, who had intermarried with Indians. 
These they employed in their various expeditions by land and 
water. Various individuals of other countries had, of late 
years, pushed the trade further into the interior, to the upper 
waters of the Missouri, and had swelled the number of these 
hangers-on. Several of these traders had, two or three years 

1. Astoria or anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Roclcy 
Mountains . By Washington Irving. Chi. & N. Y. n. d., p. lOG 



16 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

previously, formed themselves into a company, composed of 
twelve partners, with a capital of about forty thousand dol- 
lars, called the Missouri Fur Company; the object of which 
was, to establish posts along the upper part of the river, and 
monopolize the trade. The leading partner of this Company 
was Mr. Manual Lisa, a Spaniard by birth, and a man of bold 
and enterprising character, who had ascended the Missouri al- 
most to its source, and made himself well acquainted and pop- 
ular with several of its tribes. By his exertions, trading posts 
had been established, in 1808, in the Sioux country, and among 
the Aricara and Mandan tribes ; and a principal one, under Mr. 
Henry, one of the partners, at the forks of the Missouri . This 
Company had in its employ about two hundred and fifty men, 
partly American hunters, and partly Creoles and Cana'iian 
voyageurs . 

"All these circumstances combined to produce a popula- 
tion at St. Louis even more motley than that at Mackinaw. 
Here were to be seen, about the river banks, the hecfcormg, 
extravagant, bragging boatmen of the Mississippi, with the 
gay, grimacing, singing, good-humored Canadian voyageurs. 
Vagrant Indians, of various tribes, loitered about the streets. 
Now and then a stark Kentucky hunter, in leather hunting- 
dress, with a rifle on shoulder and knife in belt, strode along. 
Here and there were new brick houses and shops, just set up by 
bustling, driving and eager men of traffic from the Atlantic 
States ; while, on the other hand, the old French mansions, with 
open casements, still retained the easy, indolent air of the 
original colonists; and now and then the scraping of a fiddle, 
a strain of an ancient French song, or the sound of billiard 
})alls, showed that the happy Gallic turn for gayety and amuse- 
ment still lingered about the place . 

"Such was the St. Louis at the time of Mr. Hunt's arrival 
there, and the appearance of a new fur company, with ample 
funds at its command, produced a strong sensation among the 
Indian traders of the place, and awakened keen jealousy and 
opposition on the part of the Missouri Company. Mr. Hunt 
proceeded to strengthen himself against all competition. For 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 17 

this purpose, he secured to the interests of the Association an- 
other of those enterprising men, who had been engaged in in- 
dividual traffic with the tribes of the Missouri. This was a 
Mr. Joseph Miller, a gentleman well educated and well in- 
formed, and of a respectable family of Baltimore. He had 
been an officer in the army of the United States, but had re- 
signed in disgust, on being refused a furlough, and had taken 
to trapping beaver and trading among the Indians. He was 
easily induced by Mr. Hunt to join as a partner, and was con- 
sidered by him, on account of his education and acquirements, 
and his experience in Indian trade, a valuable addition to the 
Company'. Other arrangements were made for a quick de- 
parture, and forming a winter camp as far up the river as they 
could go that fall . 

''Accordingly, on the twenty-first of October he took his 
departure from St. Louis . His party was distributed in three 
boats. One was the barge which he had brought from Mack- 
inaw; another was of a larger size, such as was formerly used 
in navigating the Mohawk river, and known by the generic 
name of the Sehenectody barge ; the other was a large keel 
boat, at that time the grand conveyance on the Mississippi . 

"In this way they set out from St. Louis, in buoyant 
spirits, and soon arrived at the mouth of the Missouri. Thi» 
vast river, three thousand miles in length, and which, with its 
tributary streams, drains such an immense extent of country, 
was as yet but casually and imperfectly navigated by the ad- 
venturous bark of the fur trader, a steamboat had never yet 
stemmed its turbulent current. Sails were but of casual as- 
sistance, for it required a strong wind to conquer the force of 
the stream. The main dependence was on bodily strength 
and manual dexterity. The boats, in general, had to be pro- 
pelled by oars and setting poles, or dra-vvm bj^ the hand and 
grappling hooks from one root or overhanging tree to another; 
cr towed by the long cordelle, or towing line, where the shores 
were sufficiently clear of woods and thickets to permit the men 
to pass along the banks. 



3L8 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

''During this slow and tedious progress, the boat would 
he exposed to frequent danger from floating trees and great 
•masses of drifwood, or to be impaled upon snags and sawyers ; 
that is to say, sunken trees, presenting a jagged or pointed end 
;above the surface of the water. As the channel of the river 
frequently shifted from side to side, according to the bends and 
SRnd banks, the boat had, in the same way, to advance in a 
■zigzag course. Often a part of the crew would have to leap 
into the water at the shallows, and wade along with the towing 
line, while their companions on board toilfully assisted with 
oar and setting pole. Sometimes the boat would seem to be 
Tetained motionless, as if spell-bound, opposite some p.int 
round which the current set with violence, and where the 
utmost labor scarce effected any visible progress. 

"On these occasions it was that the merits of the Cana- 
dian voyageurs came into full action. Patient of toil, not to 
be disheartened by impediments and disappointments, fertile 
in expedients, and versed in every mode of humoring and con- 
-quering the wayward current, they would ply every exertion, 
sometimes in the boat, sometimes on shore, sometimes in the 
water, however cold; always alert, always in good humor; ani 
should they at any time flag or grow weary, one of their popu- 
lar boat songs, chanted by a veteran oarsman, and responded 
to in chorus, acted as a never-failing restorative. 

''By such assiduous and persevering labor they made their 
way about four hundred and fifty miles up the Missouri, by 
the 16th of November, to the mouth of the Nodowa (2) as this 
was a good hunting country, and as the season was rapidly 
-advancing, they determined to establish their winter quarters 
at this place ; and, in fact two days after they had come to a 
lialt, the river closed just above their encampment." 

Here the party was joined by Mr. Robert McLeliao a 
man who had distinguished himself in the Indian wars under 
General Wayne; also bj^ John Day, a Virginian, who had for 
some years been in the employ of western traders. The 

2. This was the present Nodaway river. In Bradbury's work 
it is called Naduet. 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 19 

country around the place of encampment abounded in deer 
and wild turkeys, and provisions were abundant. From this 
place Mr. Hunt returned to St. Louis, to obtain an interpreter, 
acquainted with the language of the Sioux, and also additional 
hunters. He started on foot January 11, 1810; at Fort Osage, 
one hundred and fifty miles below, he bought two horses, and 
with two men, proceeded to St. Louis, where he arrived Janu- 
ary 20th. Of his work then the author says : 

"The greatest difficulty was to procure the Sioux inter- 
preter. There was but one man to be met with at St. Louis 
who was fitted for the purpose, but to secure him won Id re- 
quire much management. The individual in question was a 
half-breed, named Pierre Dorion ; and as he figures hereafter 
in this narrative, and is, withal, a striking specimen of the 
hybrid race on the frontier, we shall give a few particulars 
concernmg him. Pierre was the son of Dorion, the French 
interpreter, who accompanied Messrs. Lewis and Clarke in 
their famous exploring expedition across the Rocky mountains, 
old Dorion was one of those French Creoles, descendants of the 
ancient Canadian stock, who abound on the western frontier, 
and amalgamate or cohabit with the savages. He had sojourned 
among various tribes, and perhaps left progeny among them all ; 
but his regular or habitual wife was a Sioux squaw. By her 
he had a hopeful brood of half-breed sons, of whom Pierre was 
one. The domestic affairs of old Dorion were conducted on 
the true Indian plan. Father and sons would occasionally get 
drunk together, and then the cabin was a scene of ruffian brawl 
and fighting, in the course of which the old Frenchman was 
apt to get soundly belabored by his mongrel offspring. In a 
furious scuffle of the kind, one of the sons got the old man 
upon the ground, and was on the point of scalping him. "Hold! 
my son," cried the old fellow, in imploring accents, "you are 
too brave, too honorable to scalp your father!" This last 
appeal touched the French side of the half-breed's heart so 
he suffered the old man to wear his scalp unharmed. 



20 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

"The moment it was discovered by Mr. Lisa that Pierre 
Dorion was in treaty with the new and rival association, he 
endeavored by threats as well as by promises, to prevent his 
engaging in their service. His promises might, perhaps, have 
prevailed j but his threats, which related to the whiskey debt, 
only ser/ed to drive Pierre into the opposite ranks. Still, he 
took advantage of this competition for his services to stand 
out Mr. Hunt on the most advantageous terms, and, after a ne- 
gotiation of nearly two weeks, capitulated to serve in the ex- 
pedition, as hunter and interpreter, at the rate of three hun- 
dred dollars a year, two hundred of which were to be paid in 
advance. 

"When Mr. Hunt had got everything ready for leaving 
St, Louis new difficulties arose. * * * Even Pierre Do- 
rion, at the last moment, refused to enter the boat until Mr. 
Hunt consented to take his squaw and two children on ooard 
also. * * * 

"Among the various persons who were to proceed up the 
Missouri with Mr. Hunt, were two scientific gentlemen : one 
Mr. John Bradbury, (3) a man of mature age, but great enter- 
prise and personal activity, who had been sent out by the 
Linnaean Society of Liverpool, to make a collection of Ameri- 
can plants; the other, a Mr. Nuttall, likewise an Englishman, 
younger in years, who has since made himself kno^A^^ as the 
author of "Travels in Arkansas," and a work on the 
"Genera of American Plants." Mr. Hunt had offered them 
the protection and facilities of his party, in their scientific re- 
searches up the Missouri. As they were not ready to depart 
at the moment of embarkation, they put their trunks on board 
of the boat, but remained at St. Louis until the next day, for 
the arrival of the post intending to join the expedition at St. 
Charles, a short distance above the mouth of the Missouri. 



3. Bradbupy published an account of this expedition in "Ti -.vels 
in the Interior of America, in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811; including 
a description of Upper Louisiana, together with the States of Ohio, 
Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee, with the Elinois and western 
territories, and containing remarks and observations useful to persons 
emigrating to these countries. Liverpool; 1817." 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 21 

"The same evening, however, they learned that a writ had 
been issued against Pierre Dorion for his whiskey debt, by Mr. 
Lisa, as agent of the Missouri Company, and that it was the 
intention to entrap the mongrel linguist on his arrival at St. 
Charles. Upon hearing this, Mr. Bradbury and Mr. Nuttall 
set off a little after midnight, by land, got ahead of the boat as 
it was ascending the Missouri, before its arrival at St. Charles, 
and gave Pierre Dorion warning of the legal toil prepared to 
ensnare him. The knowing Pierre immediately landed and 
took to the woods, followed by his squaw laden witli their 
papooses, and a large bundle containing their most precious ef- 
fects, promising to rejoin the party some distance above St. 
Charles. There seemed little dependence to be placed upon 
promises of a loose adventurer of the kind, who was at the 
■very time playing an evasive game with his former employers; 
who had already received two-thirds of his year's pay, and had 
his rifle on his shoulder, his family and worldly fortune at his 
heels, and the wild woods before him. There was no alterna- 
tive, however, and it was hoped his pique against his oid em- 
ployers would render him faithful to his new ones. 

**The party reached St. Charles in the afternoon, but the 
harpies of the law looked in vain for their expected prey. 
The boats resumed their course on the following morning, and 
had not proceeded far when Pierre Dorion made his appearance 
on shore. He was gladly taken on board, but he came without 
his squaw. They had quarrelled in the night; Pierre had ad- 
ministered the Indian discipline of the cudgel, whereupon she 
had taken to the woods, with their children and all their 
worldly goods. Pierre evidently was deeply grieved and dis- 
concerted at the loss of his wife and his knapsack, wherefore 
Mr. Hunt dispatched one of the Canadian voyageurs in search 
of the fugitives ; and the whole party, after proceeding a few 
miles further, encamped on an island to await his return. The 
Canadian rejoined the party, but without the squaw; and 
Pierre Dorion passed a solitary and anxious night, bitterly re- 
gretting his indiscretion in having exercised his conjugal au- 
thority so near home. Before daybreak, however, fi -jrell- 



22 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

known voice reached his ears from the opposite shora. It 
was his repentant spouse, who had been wandering the woods 
all night in quest of the party, and had at length descried it 
by its fires. A boat was dispatched for her, the interesting 
family was once more united, and Mr. Hunt now flattered him- 
self that his perplexities with Pierre Dorion were at an end. 
# * * * 

"On the afternoon of the third day, January 17th, the 
boats touched at Charette, one of the old villages founded by 
the original French colonists. Here they met Daniel Boone, 
the renowned patriarch of Kentucky, who had kept in the ad- 
vance of civilization, and on the borders of the wilderness, still 
leading a hunter's life, though now in his eighty-fifth year. 
He had but recently returned from a hunting and trapping 
expedition, and had brought nearly sixty beaver skins as 
trophies of his skill. The old man was still erect in icrm, 
strong ia limb, and unflinching in spirit, and as he stood on the 
river bank, watching the departure of an expedition destined 
to traverse the wilderness to the very shores of the Pacific, /ry 
probably felt a throb of his old pioneer spirit, impelling him 
to shoulder his rifle and join the adventurous band. Boone 
flourished several years after this meeting, in a vigorous old 
age, the Nestor of hunters and backwoodsmen ; and died, full 
of sylvan honor and renown, in 1818, in his ninety-second 
year. (4) 

"The next morning early, as the party were yet encamped 
at the mouth of a small stream, they were visited by another of 
those heroes of the wilderness, one John Colter, who had ac- 
companied Lewis and Clark in their memorable expedition. He 
had recently made one of those vast internal voyages so char- 

4. There are conflicting statements about the hirth and i-ath of 
Daniel Bocne. The Missouri volume of the U. S. Biographir-.al Dic- 
ticnary, Ellis' Life of Boone, Hill's Life of Boone, and Bryan's Life as 
published in the Missouri Historical Review all give the date of his 
death as September 26, 1820, and the above date, and that given in 
Flint's Life of Boone is not correct. Flint gives the date of his birth 
as 1736; the Ellis and Hill, Feb. 11, 1735, the U. S. Biog. Dictionary, 
Oct. 22, 1734, and Bryan August 22, 1834. The last we take to be 
the correct date. ^ 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 2-5 

acteristie of this fearless class of men, and of the immense 
regions over which they hold their lonely wanderings ; having- 
come from the head-waters of the Missouri to St. Louis in a 

small canoe . 

« * * # 

"Continuing their progress up the Missouri, the party 
encamped, on the evening pi the 21st of March, in the neigh- 
borhood of a little frontier village of French Creoles. Here 
Pierre Dorion met with some of his old comrades, with whom 
he had a long gossip, and returned to the camp with rumors of 
bloody feuds between the Osages and the loways, or Ayaways^ 
Potowatomies, Sioux, and Sawkees. Blood had already been 
shed, and scalps been taken. A war party, three hundred 
fitrong, were prowling in the neighborhood, others might be 
met with higher up the river ; it behooved the travellers, there- 
fore, to be upon their guard against robbery or surprise, i or an 
Indian war party on the march is prone to acts of outrage . 

"In consequence of this report, which was subsequently 
confirmed by further intelligence, a guard was kept up at 
night around the encampment, and they all slept on their 
arms. As they were sixteen in number, and well suppl'^d v/ith 
weapons and ammunition, they trusted to be able to give any 
marauding party a warm reception. Nothing occurre<], how- 
ever, to molest them on their voyage, and on the 8th of April, 
they came in sight of Fort Osage. On their approach the flag 
was hoisted on the fort, and they saluted it by a discharge of 
firearms. Within a short distance of the fort was an Osage 
village, the inhabitants of which, men, women and children, 
thronged down to the water side to witness their landing. One 
of the first persons they met on the river bank was Mr. Crooks, 
who had been down in a boat, with nine men, from the winter 
encampment at Nodowa, to meet them. 

"They remained at Ft. Osage a part of three days, Jur- 
ing which they were hospitably entertained at the garrison by 
Lieutenant Brownson, who held a temporary command. They 
were regaled also with a war-feast at the village; the Osage 
warriors having returned from a successful forage against the 



24 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

loways, in which they had taken seven scalps. Thest were 
paraded on poles about the village, followed by the warriors 
decked out in all their savage ornaments, and hideously paint- 
ed as if lor battle. 

"By the Osage warriors, Mr. Hunt and his companions 
were again warned to be on their guard in ascending the 
river, as the Sioux tribe meant to lay in wait and attack them. 

"On the 10th of April they again embarked, their party 
"being now augmented to twenty-six, by the addition of Mr, 
Crooks and his boat's crew. They had not proceeded far, 
however, when there was a great outcry from one of the 
boats; it was occasioned by a little domestic discipline in the 
Dorion family. The squaw of the worthy interpreter. It ap- 
peared, had been so delighted with the scalp-dance, and other 
festivities of the Osage village, that she had taken a sti-ong 
inclination to remain there. This had been as strongly op- 
posed by her liege lord, who had compelled her to embark. 
The good dame had remained sulky ever since, whereupon 
Pierre seeing no other mode of exorcising the evil spirit out 
of her, and being, perhaps, a little inspired by whiskey, had 
resorted to the Indian remedy of the cudgel, and, before his 
neighbors could interfere, had belabored her so soundly that 
Ihere is no record of her having shown any refractory symp- 
toms throughout the remainder of the expedition. 

"For a week they continued their voyage, exposed to 
almost incessant rains. The bodies of drowned buffaloes 
iioated past them in vast numbers; many had drifted upon 
the shoro or against the upper ends of rafts and islania. 
These had attracted great flights of turkey-buzzards; some 
were banqueting on the carcasses, others were soaring far 
aloft in the sky, and others were perched on the trees, with 
their backs to the sun, and their wings stretched out to dry, 
like so many vessels in harbors, spreading their sails after 
h shower. 

"The turkey-buzzard (vulture aura, or golden vulture), 
■when on the wing, is one of the most specious and imposing 
'Of birds. Its flight in the upper regions of the air is really 



WASfflNGTON IRVING. 25 

sublime, extending its immense wings, and wheeling slowly 
and majestically to and fro seemingly without exerting a mus- 
cle or fluttering a feather, but moving by mere volition, and 
sailing on the bosom of the air as a ship upon the ocean. Usurp- 
ixig the empyreal realm of the eagle, he assumes for a time the 
post and dignity of that majestic bird, and often is mistaken for 
him by ignorant crawlers upon earth. It is only when he de- 
scends from the clouds to pounce upon carrion that he betrays 
his low propensities, and reveals his caitiff character Near 
at hand he is a disgusting bird, ragged in plumage, base in 
aspect, and of loathsome odor. 

"On the 17th of April Mr. Hunt arrived with his party 
at the station near the Nodowa River, where the main body 
had been quartered during the winter. 

"The weather continued rainy and ungenial for some 
days after Mr. Hunt's return to Nodowa; yet spring was rap- 
idly advancing and vegetation was putting forth with all its 
early freshness and beauty. The snakes began to recover 
from their torpor and crawl forth into day, and the nel^'hbor- 
hood of the wintering house seems to have been much in tested 
with them. Mr. Bradbury, in the course of his botanical re- 
searches, found a surprising number in a half torpid state, 
under flat stones upon the banks which overhung the Cdnton- 
ment, and narrowly escaped being struck by a rattle-snake, 
which started at him from a cleft in the rock, but fortunately 
gave him warning by its rattle. 

"The pigeons too were filling the woods in vast migratory 
flocks. It is almost incredible to describe the prodigious flights 
of these birds in the western wildernesses. They appear ab- 
solutely in clouds, and move with astonishing velocity, their 
wings making a whistling sound as they fly. The rapid evo- 
lutions of these flocks, wheeling and shifting suddenly a- if 
with one mind and one impulse; the flashing changes of f'olor 
they present, as their backs, their breasts, or the und?r part 
of their wings are turned to the spectator, are singularly 
pleasing. When they alight, if on the ground, they cove: whole 
acres at a time ; if upon trees, the branches often break be- 



26 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

neath their weight. If suddenly startled while feeding in 
the midst of a forest, the noise they make in getting on the 
wing is like the roar of a cataract or the sound of distant 
thunder. 

"A flight of this kind, like an Egyptian flight of locusts, 
devours everything that serves for its food as it passes along. 
So great were the numbers in the vicinity of the camp that 
Mr. Bradbury, in the course of a morning's excursion, shot 
nearly three hundred with a fowling-piece. He gives a cu- 
rious, though apparently a faithful, account of the kind of 
discipline- observed in these immense flocks, so that each may 
have a chance of picking up food. As the front ranks must 
meet with the greatest abundance, and the rear ranks must 
have scanty picking, the instant a rank finds itself the hind- 
most it rises in the air, flies over the whole flock, and takes 
its place in the advance. The next rank follows in its course, 
and thus the last is continually becoming first, and all by 
turns have a front place at the banquet. 

''The rains having at length subsided, Mr. Hunt broke 
up the encampment and resumed his course up the Missouri. 

"Thf^ party now consisted of nearly sixty persons; of 
whom five were partners; one, John Reed, was a clerk: forty 
were Canadian "voyageuers," of "engages," and there were 
several hunters. They embarked in four boats, one of which 
was of a large size, mounting a swivel and two howitzers. All 
were furnished with masts and sails, to be used v>^hen the wind 
was sufficently favorable and strong to overpower the current 
of the river. Such was the case for the first four or five days, 
when they were wafted steadily up the stream by a strong 
southeaster. 

"Their encampments at night were often pleasa it and 
picturesque; on some beautiful bank beneath spreading trees, 
which afforded them shelter and fuel. The tents were pi'/.hed, 
the fires made and the meals prepared by the voyageurs, and 
many a story was told, and joke passed, and song sung, rjund 
the evening fire. All, however, were asleep at an early hour. 
Some under the tents, others wrapped in blankets before the 



WASfflNGTON IRVING. 27 

fire, or beneath the trees ; and some few in the boats and canoes. 

"On the 28th they breakfasted on one of the isiands 
which lie at the mouth of the Nebraska or Platte river, the 
largest tributary of the Missouri, and about six hundred miles 
above its confluence with the Mississippi. * * * * 

They were now beyond the limits of the present state of 
Missouri, and we leave them to pursue their course to the Pa- 
cific coast. 

At a later date, Washington Irving made a trip through 
Missouri, and the Missouri Intelligfencer and Boon's Lick 
Advertiser had the following notice of him: (5) ''Washing- 
ton Irving. This gentleman arrived in Columbia on Wednes- 
day the ]9th inst. and remained here until the next da}', vvhen 
he resumed his journey for the Osage country. From the no- 
tice in one of the St. Louis papers, announcing his arrival 
there, that he was on his way to the Upper Mississippi, we 
did not anticipate the honor of seeing him here. His desti- 
nation, however, for the present at least, is different. He ex- 
pressed the greatest surprise and admiration of what he had 
already seen of Missouri — having previously formed different 
■\iews of the country. In his manners, Mr. Irving is unostenta- 
fious, affable and gentlemanly. He will no doubt acquire a 
valuable fund of materials in his progress, for interesting 
"works or sketches, which, ere long, we may have the gratifica- 
tion of perusing." 

The fullest account of this trip given by him is in a letter 
to a friend in Europe, which was published in the Lon-lon 
Athenaeum, reprinted in the New York Commercial Advertiser, 
and copied in the Missouri Intelligencer and Boon's Lick Ad- 
vertiser, and from the files of this paper in the library of the 
State Historical Society of Missouri we copy the letter, (6) 
which was not included in the "Life and Letters of Washington 
Irving b}' his nephew Pierre M. Irving:" 

"Washington City, Dec. 18, 1832. I arrived here a few 
days since, from a tour of several months, which carried me 

c. Sept. 29. 1832. 
6. May 11, 1833. 



28 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

far to the west, beyond the bounds of civilization. 

"After I wrote to you in August, from I think Niagara, I 
proceeded with my agreeable fellow travelers, Mr. L. and Mr. 
P. (7) to Buffalo, and we embarked at Black Rock on Lake 
Erie. On board of the steamboat was Mr. E. one of the com- 
missioners appointed by the government to superintend the 
settlement of the emigrant Indian tribes to the west of the 
jilississippi. He was on his way to the place of rendezvous^ 
and on his invitation, we agreed to accompany him in his ex- 
pedition. The offer was too tempting to be resisted. I shonll 
have an opportunity of seeing the remnants of those great In- 
dian tribes which are now about to disappear as inde]>endent 
nations, or to be amalgamated under some new form of gov- 
ernment. I should see those fine countries of the "far Avest," 
while still in a state of pristine wilderness, and behold herds 
of buffaloes scouring their native prairies, before they are 
driven beyond the reach of a civilized tourist. 

"We, accordingly, traversed the centre of Ohio, and em- 
barked in a steamboat at Cincinnati for Louisville, in Ken- 
tucky. Thence we descended the Ohio river in another 
steamboat, and ascended the Mississippi to St. Louigi 
Our voyage was prolonged by repeatedly running aground, 
in consequence of the lowness of the waters, and, on the first 
occasion we were nearly wrecked and sent to the bottom, by 
encountering another steamboat coming with all the impetus 
of a high pressure engine, and a rapid current. Fortunately, 
v/e had time to sheer a little so as to receive the blow oblique- 
ly, which carried away part of a wheel, and all the upper 
works on one side of the boat. 

"From St. Louis I went to Fort Jefferson, about nme 

miles distant, to see Black Hawk, the Indian warrior, and his 

fellow prisoners — a forlorn crew, emaciated and dejected — the 

redoubtable chieftain himself, a meagre old man upwards of ser- 

entv. He has, however, a fine head, a Roman style of face, and 

a prepossessing countenance. 

7 . Mr. Chas . Joseph Latrobe and Count de Pourtales, the lormer 
of whom published "The Rambler in North America," 2 vols., Loalon, 
1832, in which he gives a full account of this trip. 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 29 

"At St. Louis we bought horses for ourselves, and a cover- 
ed wagon for our baggage, tents, provisions, etc., and traveled 
by land to Independence, a small frontier hamlet of log 
houses, situated between two and three hundred miles up the 
Missouri, on the utmost verge of civilization. * * * * 

"From Independence, we struck across the Indian coun- 
try, along the line of Indian missions ; and arrived, on the Sth 
of October, after ten or eleven days' tramp, at Fort Gibson, a 
frontier town in Arkansas. Our journey lay almost entirely 
through vast prairies, or open grassy plains, diversified oocas- 
eionally by beautiful groves, and deep fertile bottoms along the 
streams of water. We lived in frontier and almost Indian 
style, camping out at nights, except when we stopped at the 
missionaries, scattered here and there in this vast wiiderness. 
The weather was serene, and we encountered but one rainy 
night and one thunder storm, and I found sleeping in a tent a 
T^ery sweet and healthy repose. It was now upwards of three 
weeks since I had left St. Louis, and taken to traveling on 
horseback, and it agreed with me admirably. 

"On arriving at Fort Gibson, we found that a mounted 
body of rangers nearly a hundred, had set off two days before 
to make a wide tour to the west and south through the wild 
hunting countries; by way of protecting the friendly Indians, 
who had gone to the buffalo hunting, and to overawe the Paw- 
nees, who are the wandering Arabs of the west and are contin- 
ually on the maraud. We determined to proceed on th? track 
of this party, escorted by a dozen or fourteen horsemen (that 
we might have nothing to apprehend from any straggling 
party of Pawnees) and with three or four Indians as guides 
and interpreters, including a captive Pawnee woman. A 
couple of Creek Indians were despatched by the commander of 
the fort to overtake the party of rangers, and order them to 
to await our coming up with them. We were now to travel 
in still simple and rougher style, taking as little baggage as 
possible, and depending on our hunting for supplies ; but were 
to go tlrough a country abounding with game. The finest 
sport we had hitherto had was an incidental wolf hunt, as 



30 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

we were traversing a prairie, which was very animated and 
picturesque. I felt now completely launched in a savage life, 
and extremely excited and interested by this wild country, 
and the wild scenes and people by which I was surrounded. 
Our rangers were expert hunters, being mostly from Illinois, 
Tennessee, etc. 

"We overtook the exploring party of mounted rangers 
in the course of three days, on the banks of the Arkansas; 
and the whole troop crossed that river on the 16th of October, 
some on rafts some fording. Our own immediate party had 
a couple of half breed Indians as servants, who understood 
the Indian customs. They constructed a kind of boat or raft, 
out of i)uffalo skin, on which Mr. E. and myself crossed the 
river and its branches, at several times, on the top of about 
a hundred weight of baggage — an odd mode of crossing a 
liver a quarter of a mile wide. 

"We now led a true hunting life, sleeping in the open air 
and living upon the produce of the chase, for we were three 
hundred miles beyond human habitation, and part of the time 
in a country hitherto unexplored. 

" We got to the region of the buffaloes and wild hotscs; 
killed some of the former, and caught some of the latter. We 
were, moreover, on the hunting grounds of the Pawnees, the 
terror of that frontier ; a race who scour the prairies on fleet 
horses, and are like the Tartars, or roving Arabs. 

"We had to set guards round our camp, and tie up our 
horses for fear of surprise ; but, though we had an occasional 
alarm, we passed through the country without seeing a sinp'le 
Pawnee. I brought off, however, the tongue of a buffalo, of 
my own shooting, as a trophy of my hunting, and am deter- 
mined to rest my renown as a hunter upon that exploit, and 
never to descend to smaller game. 

"Wc returned to Fort Gibson after a campaign of about 
thirty days, well seasoned by hunter's fare and hunter's life. 

"From Ft. Gibson I was about five days descending the 
Arkansas to the Mississippi, in a steamboat a distance of 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 31 

several hundred miles. I then continued down the latter river 
to New Orleans, where I passed some days very pleasantly. 

"New Orleans is one of the most motley and amusing 
places in the United States ; a mixture of America and Europe. 
The French part of the city is a counterpart of some French 
provincial town, and the levee or esplanade, along the river, 
presents the most whimsical groups of people, of all nations^ 
casts and colors, French, Spanish, Indians, half-breeds, Creoles, 
mulattoes, Kentuekians, etc. I passed two days with M. on 
his sugar plantation, just at the time when they were making 
sugar. 

"From New Orleans I set off, on the mail stage, through 
Mobile, and proceeded on, through Alabama, Georgia, South 
and North Carolina, and Virginia, to Washington, a long and 
rather dreary journey, traveling frequently day and night, 
and much of the road through pine forests, in the winter 
season. 

"At Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, I passed a 
day most cordially with our friend P. I dined also with G. H. (8) 
whom I had known in New York, when a young man, iiud 
who is a perfect gentleman, though somewhat a Hotspur in 
politics. It is really lamentable to see so fine a set of gallant 
fellows, as the leading Nullifiers are, so sadly in the MTOug. 
They have just cause of complaint, and have been hardly 
dealt with, but they are putting themselves completely in the 
wrong by the mode they take to redress themselves, as a ( 'om- 
mittee of Congress is now occupied in the formation of a bill 
for the reduction of the tariff. I hope that such a bill may 
be devised and carried as will satisfy the moderate part of 
the Nullifiers. But I grieve to see so many elements of na- 
tional prejudice, hostility and selfishness, stirring and fer- 
menting, with activity and acrimony. 

"I intended stopping but a few days at Washington, and 
then proceeding to New York; but I doubt now whetlier I 
shall not linger for some time. I am very pleasantly situated ; 
I have a sunny, cheery, cosey little apartment in the hnniedi- 

8. Governor Hamilton, probably. 



32 MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 

ate neighborhood of Mr. , and take my meals at his 

house, and in fact make it my home. I have thus the advan- 
tage of ci family circle, and that a delightful one, and the 
precious comfort of a little batchelor retreat and sanctum 
sanctorum, where I can be as lonely and independent as I 
please. "Washington is an interesting place to see public 
characters, and this is an interesting crisis. Everybody, tro, 
is so much occupied with his own or the public business, that, 
now that I have got through the formal visits, I can have the 
time pretty much to myself. 

"A'i to the kind of pledge I gave, you are correct in your 
opinion. It was given in the warmth and excitement of the 
moment; was from my lips before I was aware of its unquali- 
fied extent, and is to be taken cum grane salts. It is absolutely 
my intention to make our country my home for the residue 
of my li'^e, and the more I see of it, the more I am convinced 
that I can live here with more enjoyment than in Europe, 
but I shall certainly pay my friends in France and relations 
in England, a visit, in the course of another year or two, to 
pass joyously a season in holiday style. 

"You have no idea how agreeably one can live in this 
country, especially one, like myself, who can change place at 
will, and meet friends at every turn. Politics also, which 
makes such a figure in the newspapers, do not enter so much 
3s you imagine into private life — and I think there is a better 
one respecting them generally, in society, than there was 
formerly; in fact, the mode of living, the sources of quiet 
enjoyment, and the sphere of friendly and domestic pleasures, 
are improved and multiplied to a degree that would delight- 
fully surprise you." 

In the "Life and Letters of Washington Irving" there 
are three letters written to his sister, Mrs. Paris, from St. 
Louis, from Independence, and from Ft. Gibson, Ark. In the 
first one in addition to what he told of Black Hawk, in the 
letter quoted, he says "He has a small, well-formed head, 
with an aquiline nose, a good expression of eye; and a phy- 
sician present, who is given to craniology, perceived the organ 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 33 

of benevolence strongly developed, though I believe the old 
chieftain stands accused of many cruelties. His brother-in- 
law, the prophet, is a strong, stout man and much younger. 
He is considered the most culpable agent in fomenting the 
late disturbance; though I find it extremely difficult, even 
when so near the seat of action, to get at the right story of 
these feuds between the white and the red men, and my sym- 
pathies go strongly with the latter." (9) 

In the second letter he wrote: "We arrived at this place 
day before yesterday, after nine days' travel on horseback 
from St. Louis. Our journey has been a very interesting one, 
leading us across fine prairies and through noble forests, dot- 
ted here and there by farms and log houses, at which we 
found rough but wholesome and abundant fare, aud very 
civil treatment. Many parts of these prairies of the Missouri 
are extremely beautiful, resembling cultivated countries, em- 
bellished with parks and groves, rather than the savag.} rude- 
ness of the wilderness. 

"Yesterday I was out on a deer-hunt, in the vicinity of 
this place, which led me through some scenery that only 
wanted d castle, or a gentleman's seat here and there inter- 
spersed, to have equalled some of the most celebrated park 
scenery of England. 

"The fertility of all this western country is truly aston- 
ishing. The soil is like that of a garden, and the luxuriance 
and beauty of the forests exceed any that I have seen. We 
have gradually been advancing, however, toward rougher 
Jife, and we are now at a little straggling frontier village, 
that has only been five years in existence. From heuce, in 
the course of a day or two, we take our departure south- 
wardly, and shall bid adieu to civilization, and camp at night 
in our tents, " (10) 

In the third letter there is nothing in addition to the 
better quoted. 

9. Life and letters of Washington Irving, by his nephew, 
Pierre M. Irving. N. Y., 1895. Vol. II, p. 264. 

10. Ibid, p. 266. 



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